Scarsdale Mayor Should Stop Wasting Taxes to Suppress Free Speech

Scarsdale Village Board of Trustees is spending our tax dollars to suppress our First Amendment right to free speech in a federal law suit. Earlier this year, lawn signs supporting the school bond began disappearing from our front lawns. When residents reported these as having been stolen, they learned that the Scarsdale police had removed them as instructed by Scarsdale Village government.

Scarsdale school bond supporter, attorney Robert Berg, took up the defense of our First Amendment rights on a pro bono basis. He brought a case against the Village and the police department in federal court for this violation of Scarsdale residents’ constitutional rights to free speech. He seeks $1 in damages. Attorney Berg has already won an early victory for Scarsdale residents. U.S. District Judge Nelson Román ruled on Feb. 6 that the Village may not stop Scarsdale residents from posting political signs in the Village right of way, as long as the signs pose no safety or traffic hazards. Judge Román granted a temporary restraining order.

On June 7 in Federal Court, we learned that the BOT intends to continue litigating this case and fight against a permanent injunction and the $1 in damages Berg seeks. The Village is paying an outside law firm with our taxes to fight a lawsuit it has no chance of winning, where the judge has already imposed a temporary restraining order for the past four months because of the likelihood of its success on the merits. The Village has told the Court it plans on amending and updating the Village code provision dealing with political lawn signs. The Mayor has stated separately the new Code provision would eliminate the written permit requirement, but still require advance written notice. That’s like removing a ban on movie cinemas and replacing it with a ban on movie theaters.

What valid public purpose is served by requiring residents to register with the Village when they are posting political lawn signs in front of their houses? There are only negative purposes: the politicians in power can monitor the residents who support them and their opponents and create a database of political support and dissent. As a result, residents will be reluctant to subject themselves to potential retribution. This has already occurred: people who supported alternative candidates were summarily ejected from boards. Also, candidates will find it more difficult to convince supporters to post their political signs on their front lawns if their supporters have to go through the trouble of providing advance written notice to the Village. The spontaneity and distribution of political expression is substantially diminished – which is exactly what those in power want.

This unconstitutional Village effort is designed to intimidate and suppress the exercise of Free Speech, particularly political speech, in front of residents’ homes. This is a pernicious assault on our Constitutional rights by an administration that criticizes residents who speak out during public comment sessions at Village Board meetings, rushes residents to complete their remarks, and then seemingly ignores what residents have to say. An administration emplaced by a political party that has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on Scarsdale government for over one hundred years and fears the specter of competition and the loss of monopoly power.

Let the Mayor and the Board of Trustees know that our First Amendment rights are sacrosanct, and we will tolerate no abridgment. Email the Mayor mayor@Scarsdale.com and Board of Trustees Clerk@Scarsdale.com, send us your thoughts for publication in our Newsletter and write to the editor at the Scarsdale Inquirer (editor@scarsdalenews.com)